The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

This post is part three of a travel series to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.   To start at the beginning go  HERE.  The next posts in consecutive order are HERE.

The biggest highlight of Mackinac Island is The Grand Hotel.  Mention to anyone that you visited or plan to visit Mackinac Island and someone will inevitably bring up The Grand Hotel.  So that being said, even if you're not spending the night in the hotel, be sure at least to visit!  It costs $10.00 to view the lobby for non-guests, but it is free to walk on its porch...the longest in the world...and sit in one of their many rocking chairs.

But let's back up a bit before we cover The Grand Hotel shall we? 

We started our day by grabbing the first ferry out to the island.  Mackinac Island is only available by ferry.  No motorized vehicles are allowed on the island.  It costs around $30 per person to take the ferry.  We were the first ones on board but it quickly filled up with employees of the island.

Here is the view of The Grand Hotel as seen from the ferry.  You really get an idea of the size of this hotel when you see it from Lake Huron.

The hotel is a historic site, and this sign giving information about the hotel is located right outside.

The road leading to the front steps of the hotel is lined with American flags and beautiful flowers.  These flower beds change with the seasons.  We were there in spring, so all the tulips and other spring bulbs were blooming. 

It's pretty intimidating walking up these red carpet steps.  I kept wondering if one of the valets was going to stop me!

Once we reached the top of the steps we just walked down this very long porch enjoying the views, and of course we had to spend some time sitting in their famous rocking chairs.  We did not pay the $10 per person to view the lobby, but I did peek through the windows!  I must admit, as much as I love the exterior of this hotel, I detest the interior, which is one of the reasons we didn't stay here.  The decor is just hideous and out-dated to me.  I know some people love it, but just as many people like me hate it.  I feel they really need to update the decor, and that is coming from someone who lives in a house built in the late 1800's.  The rooms look like one just stepped into an elderly person's house in the eighties.  They all have loud, obnoxious floral wallpaper, bright, neon colors, floral patterned couches that look like they need to be donated to a thrift store...and you get all this for a mere $500.00 a night.  Blah!  Not for me.  Sleeping here would give me nightmares.  And if you don't believe me, see for yourself HERE!

Now, once again, I'd like to repeat that I love historic homes...I live in one myself!  But I think you can keep the architecture of a historic home and decorate with more updated furniture, colors, and patterns and mix a little historic flair with an antique here and there.  At least, that is what I try to do in my own home.

The Grand Hotel sits high on a hill (it's quite the steep walk to get here) so you get great views of Lake Huron.

All along the edge of the porch are planters of red geraniums.  They inspired me to plant more geraniums in my garden this year!

Behind me you also get a great view of the famous Mackinaw Bridge that I wrote about in post one.

After spending quite a bit of time on the porch, we decided it was time to explore the rest of the grounds and the famous "Secret Garden".  Before I do that I should note that the porch is not open to the public all the time.  They will close it for special events.  In fact, on the day we were there they had a convention in the evening at the hotel and they were only allowing hotel guests on the grounds after 5:00 pm.  So before you make any plans for your day on the island, make sure the hotel grounds are open to the public.

The hotel has an amazing outdoor pool with incredible views of both the hotel and Lake Huron.

There is a massive lawn right in front of the hotel where outdoor events are held.  The paths are lined with white benches and flower borders.

I had first heard of  The Grand Hotel "The Secret Gardens" when watching the YouTube show "Garden Answer" where she gave a tour of the gardens.  Now, let me tell you, these gardens are definitely "secret" and very hard to find.  They do not advertise them for some reason.  There are no signs anywhere.  I had a pretty good idea where they were because I watched the show and I still couldn't find them!  I finally stopped and asked a worker and he gave us more clues and eventually we found them.  

But first, let me show you this amazing horse and carriage topiary on the front lawn of The Grand Hotel.

The trick to finding the garden is to get off the main path that leads to the greenhouse, and go onto these little narrow gravel paths.  I was so excited to see all these dainty Forget-Me-Nots.

Here was our mistake the first time we looked for this garden.  We saw this beautiful Magnolia tree and stopped to admire it before continuing straight.  Wrong!  When you see the Magnolia tree hang a right and start walking down a very narrow path that looks like you shouldn't be there.

As soon as you round the bend of the Magnolia tree it will open up to "The Secret Garden" and your jaw will drop because you will see this stunning floral display with a backdrop of The Grand Hotel.

The flowers change with the seasons.  Once again, we were there in May so we saw all the spring bulb blooms.  A 'river' with a bridge in the center was created using blue hyacinth bulbs.  On either side of the 'river' are tulip beds.

I felt I was in heaven surrounded by all these flowers.  

But the "Secret Garden" aren't the only flowers of The Grand Hotel.  Surrounding their building are gorgeous flower beds!

I thought daffodils were the perfect choice for the Ice Cream Parlor flower bed because the yellow of the flowers matched the awnings.

And this bed is loaded with geraniums!

Here's an aerial shot of two of the hotel beds.  I love the pattern the tulips create.  

If you are a flower lover like me, you love visiting The Grand Hotel even though you never step inside!

Next week, I will conclude our day of our visit to Mackinac Island by sharing our walk along the lakeshore seeing more natural sights of the islands and some miscellaneous stuff.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

Chicago's Navy Pier

 This is a continuation of a series of travel posts of a week I spent in Illinois to visit my children.  To start at the beginning go HERE.  The rest of the posts are HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.


After my daughter and I were finished shopping on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, we then walked over to check out Navy Pier as I had never been there before and I really wanted to see it.

Navy Pier is a 3,300 foot long pier on the Chicago Shoreline of Lake Michigan.  I have seen a lot of piers in my lifetime, but this by far was the largest and most beautiful pier I have ever visited.

The entrance to this pier is this gorgeous building which is filled with shops, restaurants, a children's museum, and a atrium.

 Outside of the building is a lovely park; this cement portion in the picture looks like it is probably a water feature for the kids to run through.  But seeing that I was there in February, it was not functioning.

This is a view of the inside of the Navy Pier building as seen from the escalator going up to atrium.  There was some type of construction going on when we were there.

The atrium, called Crystal Gardens is one acre, six story glass atrium with a fifty foot arched ceiling.

There are lots of benches to sit and rest awhile;  and we did, as we were exhausted from walking here from the Magnificent Mile.

 My favorite part of the atrium were the fun water features.

Now I must admit February is not the best time of the year to go to Navy Pier because most activities are closed for the season.  If you ever do get to go to Navy pier, visit during the summer.  There are concerts, outdoor food vendors, theatre shows, boat rides, other amusement rides, and fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday evening.

However, even though a lot of things were closed for the season, it was still worth going to see the gorgeous lake view.

The pier is filled from end to end with gorgeous buildings.  We peeked inside a few of them, but everything was quite desolate with not much going on in the middle of a winter week day.  When I got home I read about all these buildings and discovered that they have a indoor ice rink, an Imax theatre, the Pepsi Skyline Theatre which holds a variety of live events ranging from music and theatre to acrobatic shows, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and even a Funhouse Maze. You can also rent the facility out for conventions, weddings, etc.

But the nice part of visiting the pier on a warm winter day is that you pretty much have the entire pier to yourself!  It was so peaceful and quiet;  a great opportunity to just soak up the beauty surrounding you!

I am always amazed at how blue the waters of Lake Michigan are.  Such a gorgeous view!

 The ferris wheel was the only amusement ride operating this day.  We had planned on taking this ride for you get great views of the Chicago skyline on it.  But we were at the pier at the worst time of the day:  the sun was just blinding!  We knew we wouldn't be able to see much so we skipped it.

By the time we walked all the way to the end of the pier and then stopped inside for a snack, the sun was starting to set for the day.  We had a gorgeous view of the sun settling behind the Chicago's sky scrapers as we walked back to our car.

I hope to get back to Navy Pier sometime and hopefully get on that Ferris Wheel and/or see some fireworks or a show.  I'm sure I'll have another shot since my kids only live 45 minutes away!

Next week I will finish my Illinois Travel Series with just some random shots and photos of my week.  Then I will be taking a ten day blogging break as I am headed to Myrtle Beach!  I am so excited!  It will be my first real vacation since last May when we headed to Las Vegas.  Please pray for safe car travel;  it's the only thing I'm really worried about as we had car problems on our last vacation.  We are taking the same car which has over 100,000 miles on it and I'm nervous it's going to break down again.  I'm also worried about Jackson being separated from us for so long.  When I left him for seven days to visit the kids, he was really mad at me....seriously!  He wouldn't even come near me!  That lasted a about an hour, then he forgave me.  But now not only will I be gone, but his 'daddy' as well and he will be staying in someone else's home.  So who knows how he will react.  It'll be so hard for me to separated from him for so long.  How do all of you handle being separated from your pets while on vacation?

Have a great day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!